Friday, April 15, 2011

Info:Packy the elephant was born at the Oregon zoo nearly 50 years ago. He hasbeen confined in a tiny cell all of his life. The stress and captivity
have driven Packy mad: He is currently exhibiting behavior that is typical of the severe mental illness that is often caused in zoo animals by close confinement.

Packy's continued torture by confinement is not necessary: the people of
Portland voted in an enormous bond for the zoo for the purpose of creating
an off site preserve to retire the elephants to a more humane setting.
This was years ago. The zoo has the money, but the preserve is not yet a
reality, and Packy is still living out his life behind bars, in a concrete
cell.

This Saturday, the zoo is once again choosing to re-enact one of the
saddest rituals of Packy's long confinment: It will be his birthday again.
The zoo will be trotting Packy out to eat an "enrichment cake" in front of
adoring cameras and laughing families. No one will notice that the object
of their affections is not celebrating with them. No, he is suffering. And
it's time for that suffering to end.

Please join us this Saturday to remind the public that another year of
captivity and madness and beatings with a bull hook is nothing to
celebrate. The only gift Packy really needs this year is his freedom. We
will be meeting at the front gate of the zoo to ask that the public please
refrain from laughing at Packy's pain. Instead, let us all ask for an endto his long confinement.

Why do the animals need radical cheerleaders?

The animals don't have a voice. They need YOU to be their voice, and they need the Radical Cheerleaders to be the RAAAAAAWWWWRRR in that voice. You will see Radical Cheerleaders at WTO protests and war protests, but you never see them outside of a business that profits off of animals... UNTIL NOW! That is why we are here...and we just love to yell, dance, chant, cheer, and shake our booTAYS and our pom poms! Rise up, resist!